Research grants may face the budget ax

Current education cuts are not the only things students and faculty at Fresno State
have to fear.

Along with state budget cuts, many research grants that have greatly impacted university
educational programs are in danger of losing funding. Fresno State has received grant
funding from various private foundations, federal and state agencies.

Dr. Thomas H. McClanahan, associate vice president for University Research, Grants
and Contracts, said the current budget crises will continue to strain potential sources
for research grant funding.

Fresno State has benefited from research grants for several years. A report written
in The Fresno Bee Jan. 19 stated that Fresno State has received $165 million in grants and contracts during
the past five years.

McClanahan said that the funding that Fresno State has received during the last several
years has increased.

"We nearly reached $48 million last year, an increase of 25 percent over the previous
year. Our volume of awards has quadrupled since 1996-97," McClanahan said.

Taken the past success in grant funding as a cue for the future, university President
John Welty has developed a task force to reorganize grants and contracts on campus
under one administrative agency.

Areas on campus that have benefited from grants include the science, agriculture,
health and human services, social science, education, business and continuing and
global education departments.

The United States Department of Agriculture ( USDA) is one agency that funds students and faculty in the agriculture department.

"The goal of the USDA is to help students identify an ag career they can pursue,"
said Dr. Dennis Nef, a professor of the college of agricultural science and technology.

Nef said the program helps expose students to future employers and those students,
in turn, play a crucial role in recruiting future Fresno State students into the ag
program.

The National Institute of Health ( NIH) also funds a program on campus. The NIH funds five faculty members and allows them
to research, said Shirley Kovacs, a biology professor who administers the Support
for Continuation of Research Excellence program.

"Our primary goal is to promote students to achieve and go on to receive their masters,"
Kovacs said. "Many students participate in this research." Kovacs said that the program
grant might be in danger of being terminated. With the large workload the faculty
has in addition to their research, they are limited in the ability to publish their
work.

"The primary reason for this is time constraints," Kovacs said. "A large number of
people who participate in the program will lose their job."

Kovacs and McClanahan will be making a visit to Washington D.C. to discuss the funding
of the program with the NIH.

"For a year or two, things will be very difficult, but given the neccesary internal
resources, in the long run our grants and contracts program has the potential to grow
in both size and sophistication," McClanahan said.